This invention relates to displaying media items of a social networking service on a computing device. More particularly, this invention relates to displaying media items in a defined area of a screen of a computing device.
Social networking services have become a popular venue for sharing media items. Users often upload various media items to a server for providing the social networking service to share the media items with other users of the social networking services. Such uploaded media items include, for example, messages, webpages or their components, images, and movie clips. The server for providing the social networking service selects media items relevant to the user based on, for example, user settings, relationships with other users and times when the media items were uploaded. The selected media items are then sent to certain users for display or to perform other interactions.
The media items stored in the server providing the social networking service may be accessed by various devices. In addition to desktop computers and laptop computers, handheld devices such as cell phones, smartphones and tablet computer are frequently used to access the social networking services. Although such handheld devices can perform most of the functions associated with the social networking service, these handheld devices tend to have smaller screens compared to desktop computers or laptop computers. Hence, the handheld devices can display a smaller number of media items simultaneously compared to the desktop computers and the laptop computers. Therefore, the user may have to navigate through multiple views or pages to locate the media items of interest.
Moreover, the handheld devices also have input devices different from the desktop computers or the laptop computers. Many handheld devices lack full keyboards or mouse devices. Hence, the process of inputting alphanumeric characters tends to require more time and mental focus of the users when using handheld devices. Further, more handheld devices are now equipped with input devices such as touchscreens that render swiping actions more convenient compared to the desktop computers or the laptop computers.
Conventional user interfaces displayed on the handheld devices for accessing or using the social networking services have been less than satisfactory. These user interfaces were unsuccessful in facilitating interactions with a large number of media items available from the social networking service. Also, these user interfaces did not adequately leverage characteristics of input devices in the handheld devices.